Labs’ Felicia Kodderitzsch recognised as rising stars in fintech

March 08, 2019

Innovate Finance, an independent membership association representing the UK’s global fintech community, recently announced their 2018 Women in Fintech Powerlist. One of the 35 “Standout Stars” on the list is Felicia Kodderitzsch, Business and Operations Manager at Labs — which may have come as a surprise to Felicia, but not for her colleagues at Labs.

“Felicia is an exceptional talent,” stated Sam Handfield-Jones, Growth and Innovation Director at Octopus. “Without her Octopus Cash and Labs would not be where they are today. She combines product thinking, data and analytics, a comfort with ambiguity in her ability to execute, huge amounts of curiosity, and buckets of empathy.”

Social empathy has long been a driving force in Felicia’s career. “The reason I first got into fintech was because it’s an opportunity to democratise financial services and make them available to everyone,” stated Felicia.

Those aren’t just words. Felicia earned degrees in Economics & Politics and International Public Policy with the intention of working toward a more sustainable, fairer society. Outside her work at Labs, Felicia gives generously of her time to multiple charitable causes and organisations that work toward social equity.

Innovate Finance’s decision to highlight the accomplishments of women in fintech is important given that women are still very under-represented in fintech. “There’s still a stigma that working in tech, especially fintech, requires skills typically associated only with men,” stated Felicia. “Campaigns like the Innovate Finance Women in Fintech List celebrates people’s achievements, but also normalizes the role of women in fintech.”

Key to normalising the role of women in fintech, added Felicia, is having more women role models. Felicia’s own career path was aided by women in management roles who challenged and encouraged Felicia, and set her on a path toward fintech. “They helped make me feel confident in my abilities,” claimed Felicia.

Felicia also credits her personal network of “bad ass,” highly-accomplished female friends for providing inspiration and advice. And she credits her aerial skills, circus training classes for teaching her to work outside her comfort zone.

As the recognition from Innovate Finance makes clear, Felicia is already on the path toward becoming a role model for many others, both women and men. Sam, who has worked with Felicia since her first day at Labs, added, “I’m looking forward to Felicia being my boss one day.”